The story was exposed after the historic fight-back and triumph at the Oval that helped India to end the five-Test series in 2-2. A report from a national Hindi newspaper has revealed that India entered the field on the fifth day at The Oval with a huge warning from ICC match referee Jeff Crowe hanging over their head.

According to the report, quoting Indian team sources, Crowe had warned India of deducting four WTC (World Test Championship) points because their over-rate was slow by six overs. The condition was simple: either India took the England wickets or they needed to improve their over-rate to avoid the point penalty. Every point in WTC counts.

With the warning from the match-referee, the think-tank of the team, including Gambhir, assistant coach Sitanshu Kotak, and Shubman Gill, had an intense discussion in between, and plans were made that spinners should be used from both ends as they would reduce the time to complete the over, and the penalty would be avoided. However, Gambhir said that the team should go for a win and not think about the over-rate. On the final day, only pacers Prasidh Krishna and Mohammed Siraj bowled, and it took them less than an hour to pick the remaining four England wickets.

Gambhir’s decision was vindicated, and India did not get any penalty either. Currently, India are third in the WTC points table behind Australia and Sri Lanka. The top two teams will qualify for the 2025-2027 WTC final.

However, India registered a win by six runs – the narrowest victory margin in the team’s Test history. For a team devoid of stars like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, R. Ashwin, and even Jasprit Bumrah, the fifth Test win was a confidence-booster that would serve them well in times to come.